Lin McLean

by Owen Wister

Owen Wister (1860-1938) was an American writer of western novels. He studied at the Harvard Law School, where he was a classmate of Theodore Roosevelt and graduated in 1888. At first he aspired to a career in music, and spent two years studying at a Paris conservatory. Thereafter, he worked briefly in a bank in New York before studying law. Wister had spent several summers out in the American West and was fascinated with the culture, lore and terrain of that region. When he started writing, he naturally inclined towards fiction set on the western frontier. Wister's most famous work remains the 1902 novel The Virginian: Horseman of the Plains. This is widely regarded as being the first American western novel. Amongst his other works are: Lin McLean (1897), The Jimmyjohn Boss and Other Stories (1900), Philosophy 4 (1903), Lady Baltimore (1906), Mother (1907), Padre Ignacio; or, The Song of Temptation (1911) and A Straight Deal (1920).

Genres: Westerns, Fiction, Classics

208 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1898

About the author

Owen Wister was born on July 14, 1860, in Germantown, a neighborhood within the City of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. His father, Owen Jones Wister, was a wealthy physician, one of a long line of Wisters raised at the storied Belfield estate in Germantown. His mother, Sarah Butler Wister, was the daughter of actress Fanny Kemble.
Education
He briefly attended schools in Switzerland and Britain, and later studied at St. Paul's School in Concord, New Hampshire and Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts, where he was a classmate of Theodore Roosevelt, an editor of the Harvard Lampoon and a member of Delta Kappa Epsilon (Alpha chapter). Wister graduated from Harvard in 1882.
At first he aspired to a career in music, and spent two years studying at a Paris conservatory. Thereafter, he worked briefly in a bank in New York before studying law, having graduated from the Harvard Law School in 1888. Following this, he practiced with a Philadelphia firm, but was never truly interested in that career. He was interested in politics, however, and was a staunch Theodore Roosevelt backer. In the 1930s, he opposed Franklin D. Roosevelt and the New Deal.
Writing career
Wister had spent several summers out in the American West, making his first trip to Wyoming in 1885. Like his friend Teddy Roosevelt, Wister was fascinated with the culture, lore and terrain of the region. On an 1893 visit to Yellowstone, Wister met the western artist Frederic Remington; who remained a lifelong friend. When he started writing, he naturally inclined towards fiction set on the western frontier. Wister's most famous work remains the 1902 novel The Virginian, the loosely constructed story of a cowboy who is a natural aristocrat, set against a highly mythologized version of the Johnson County War and taking the side of the large land owners. This is widely regarded as being the first cowboy novel and was reprinted fourteen times in eight months.[5] The book is dedicated to Theodore Roosevelt.
Personal life
In 1898, Wister married Mary Channing, his cousin.The couple had six children.
Wister's wife died during childbirth in 1913, as Theodore Roosevelt's first wife had died giving birth to Roosevelt's first daughter, Alice.
Wister died at his home in Saunderstown, Rhode Island. He is buried in Laurel Hill Cemetery in Philadelphia.

Reviews

[Debbie Zapata · Rating 5 out of 5]

Owen Wister is perhaps best known as the author of The Virginian, a 1902 book that has come to be regarded as the first cowboy novel, even though it is actually a loosely connected set of short stories (some written as early as 1893) about a Wyoming cowboy originally from Virginia. This was a good formula for Wister, since Lin McLean is a loosely connected set of short stories about a Wyoming cowboy originally from Boston. The first McLean story was published in 1892, one middle chapter was from 1895; others (including the emotional final chapter of this book) were written in 1897.

You would think this way of creating a novel would produce a confusing, sloppy piece of work, but at least in the case of Lin McLean that is not true. (I haven't read The Virginian in years so I can't comment on that yet.) In the earliest chapters/stories, we meet young Lin, who wakes up at cow camp one day and decides to go in search of 'variety'. We ride along with Lin on his search, and I was worried about him a time or two,
wondering if he would ever actually turn into the man he was meant to be.

He and the other cowboys (the man from Virginia shows up a time or two, they were friends) are full of life and fun, and an innocent sort of wildness that has come to be considered the iconic cowboy style. Lin's method of inviting two travelers to supper is a priceless example of this.

These cowboys were also grand human beings. There is a darkly comic funeral that will make you laugh with the high-spirited boys; and admire them not only for the way they work so hard at taking care of things properly, but for the way they suddenly become vividly aware of the reality of exactly what they are doing.

Wister frequently visited the west when it was still The West. He knew and understood men like McLean and The Virginian, and had the ability to make them and their country come to life on paper. And thank goodness he could do that, since those glory days are long gone now.

[Edwin Lang · Rating 3 out of 5]

Lin McLean is a series of intertwined short stories that builds to a really nice finish.

Lin is introduced as a free-spirited cow-boy who is moved by a sermon on the Prodigal Son returns home only to discover that he is not wanted (by his brother) but realizes that at least in his case this is no longer home for him. Being on the open range has profoundly changed him and as Owen Wister describes in the context of a death and subsequent funeral at miserable place called Dry Bone what is really means to live in the west and gives us insight into the how and why Lin McLean had been so molded by his experiences in Wyoming.

Interestingly the story also traces Lin moving from being basically a boy into a man with a conscience. As a boy he marries impetuously and later as a man learns the true meaning of love:

Even though there were moments of joy
and these sometimes so deep

I had not realized how deeply unfulfilled I was until I got to know you
- felt what it was like to be otherwise -
finding then that existence without you a vacuum

then it became the impotence of being unable to do anything,
if only to say your name, to think it

The time we were together I cherish, and again feel that joy
But it is the continuity of your presence I miss, not the fragments
and it was not simply the joy of knowing you
But that the joy of your presence had crept up on me so unawares,
and lingers still

It’s a quiet and simple story, that like love creeps on one unawares. I suspect also this is very much a man’s book and I heard about it and sought it out after having completed The Virginian. I ended the book feeling quite satisfied in the characterizations, story and finale and recommend it.

Edwin

[Lora]

Enjoyable short stories that tie up in a neat bundle with the main character in the center. Great humor, funny characters, strong character development, nearly impossible situations- in a way-and all around fun reading. Strongly recommend.
The west: where people roamed across huge swaths of territory and kept running into each other.

[Karina · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book follows the titular character from adolescence to manhood. The story starts when the young cowboy, now living in the West, visits his brother in New York. He easily realizes that's no longer his home and reverts back to the cow-punching lifestyle of Wyoming. He marries young and hastily and, as the saying goes, repents at leisure. He finally comes across a woman he truly cares for but the aforementioned wife stands in their way.

Lin is a good person who deserved his happy ending and Owen Wister did not disappoint me. While I prefer the Virginian to this Wyomingite, Wister's writing is just as hopeful.

[Stephen · Rating 4 out of 5]

Always a book with adventure and meaning. Nice character development. They do not write books like this anymore. Love to listen to them hiking and enjoying remote trails.

[John · Rating 2 out of 5]

written for young adults

[Ron · Rating 5 out of 5]

Read review at my blog.

[Jacqueline · Rating 4 out of 5]

I have always loved his dialogue, straight out of the old west. Entertaining - touching - informative (know what a biscuit thrower was?) and just a good read.

[Julia Robb · Rating 5 out of 5]

If you want to read a Western that really describes the west as it was, Lin McLean is the book for you. I can't remember anyone shooting anyone else, but it provides human drama as its best.